


tomorrow she's gone (and if not, someday, somehow)

by imgoingtocrash



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Post Arrow 4x15, Post LoT 1x06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 07:23:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6185758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgoingtocrash/pseuds/imgoingtocrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The phone finally picks up, but because she’s met with silence, she speaks first. “Hey, Ollie."</p><p>"Hey...Sara." Oliver replies, but he doesn't sound right. At first, she thinks it's just that she got used to that gravelly tone in the voice of the Oliver Queen from a future that never existed. In reality, the faint slur in his voice is something she’d long buried away from their youth."</p><p>Oliver is having a bit of a pity party after the events of 4x15 and Sara, after seeing a future where Oliver gives up hope, isn't having it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tomorrow she's gone (and if not, someday, somehow)

**Author's Note:**

> As anyone that follows me on social media knows, I am truly living now that Sara Lance is alive again. I'm enjoying Legends of Tomorrow more than I originally anticipated, and I especially enjoyed Star City 2046 as an episode.  
> I think the relationship dynamic between Oliver and Sara is very interesting, mostly because it's gone through so much. (Hooking up, surviving on the island, being survivors that are trying to find their place, being together, dying/almost dying, and now being two people trying to change and find themselves in that change.)  
> I thought it would be interesting to have Sara calling home to comfort herself after the events of 1x06, only to see she's not the only one going through some emotionally rough stuff between them.
> 
> Title is from Soldier On by The Temper Trap.

Sara doesn’t know why she’s in Rip’s office on the ship. For privacy, she supposes. Maybe because she gets a little joy from Rip’s mostly-joking comments about not having personal space anymore. Mostly because she needed the quiet for what she’s about to do.

She dials the numbers slowly, Gideon having already asked her to put in a date and time in which to place the call. Being on a time traveling spaceship is still a really odd concept for her, despite all of the other weird stuff that she’s seen throughout her lifetime.

The phone rings 3 times, and by the 4th ring she’s considering hanging up and forgetting about it. The phone finally picks up, but because she’s met with silence, she speaks first. “Hey, Ollie."

"Hey...Sara." Oliver replies, but he doesn't sound right. At first, she thinks it's just that she got used to that gravelly tone in the voice of the Oliver Queen from a future that never existed. In reality, the faint slur in his voice is something she’d long buried away from their youth.

That future had an effect on her, whether she'll admit it to Rip and her other teammates or not. She never thought she'd see the day Oliver Queen gave up hope. To see him hiding, cowering alone in his misery. Even on the island, there was a fire in him. To see what she had left in 2016, a true team of love and support crumbled into one worn down man...it hurt. After reuniting with her family and coming back from the dead, she started to believe in all of those things she tried to abandon when she was under the League's thumb. Even as she left Star City, she knew there was a home she could come back to any time she wanted.

“You’re drunk?” Sara asks, because hearing Oliver Queen drunk is as old and familiar as petty sisterly cat-fighting with Laurel. After all the death and change, old habits still died hard, she supposed.

"Very," He answers succinctly, less of the excitable, babbling drunk he used to be.

"Are Felicity and John with you?" She asks in hopes that they're having some sort of depressing Original Team Arrow therapy session instead of imagining Oliver being alone once again.

He pauses and she hears the clink of glass on glass before he mutters, "Felicity, she..."

He doesn't finish. He doesn't have to. "Oh, Ollie."

"I did it again, Sara. I lied about something, and she had every right to walk away from me. She literally walked away from me after being paralyzed in a wheelchair,” Oliver laughs, but it’s a sad and broken sort of huff. “That's how awful of a fiancé I am. That's how upset she was." She can hear his self-hatred. It's a common trait between them, to build others up while tearing themselves down.

She goes for an attempt at comfort, despite it not being her strong suit. "I'm sorry, Oliver. I wish there was something I could do."

"Can you go back in that ship of yours and yell at me not to lie to the person that I was supposed to be marrying? Maybe it will be more useful listening to a real time traveller." Sara barely knows the Speedster, but she’s almost touched by being considered a more experienced time traveller.

"It's not really my ship, I'm afraid. And don't be too hard on Barry. When I visited Cisco for Laurel back when I was in Central City it seemed like they had a lot going on. Plus, Kendra says she trusts them. And you for that matter."

"I know, Sara. It’s just…this is my fault. Always is." She hears Oliver swallow more of what she assumes is either his favorite Russian vodka or possibly whiskey.

Sara sighs, fiddling with a trinket on Rip’s desk that he would probably insist she not touch if he were here. “Ollie, changing the past, the future...it's not always easy. Some things always happen one way or another. But that doesn't mean we just let them happen. You love Felicity, don't you?"

"Of course I do, Sara. She's..." Oliver sighs, and she can hear the smile. "She's Felicity."

He doesn't have to explain what he means by that. Sara's seen those looks towards Felicity just like everyone else. “Then if you think you can fix this, you have to try. She's upset. Let her be upset. Acknowledge that you hurt her. Then make sure you change. No more lies or secrets, not with her. You're lucky she’s alive to apologize to. You have a second chance. People like us...we don't get those often."

Sara thinks of Nyssa. Things between them are unresolved and it twists her up inside if she thinks about it too hard. She’d thought of reconnecting with Nyssa back when Rip Hunter picked her up to join his merry band, but in Oliver’s current time it’s been months and she wonders if it might be too late. Some part of her hopes it's not.

"You did. Dead more times that I can count and here you are, still kicking my ass into gear." Oliver’s smiling, she knows he is. Their relationship is different now, after all these years, but he’s still always happy to see her, happy to have her in his life again. 

She thinks of him, the grey peppering his hair. The untrimmed beard, almost reminiscent of Robert Queen himself. The smile of a man who got knocked down and finally had a reason to get back up again. "I always will."

"Thank you, Sara," Oliver says, then seems to read her mind. "Whatever you saw out there...whatever's coming for me that made you decide to call after all this time...I hope you made it better."

"I hope I did too." Is all she says, because she can't change what's coming for him. She doesn’t even know what it will be, now that they’re messing with time and space trying to hunt down Vandal Savage. She just knows she never wants him to become that man who believes change isn't possible anymore. And encouraging him to fix things with Felicity? Well, that's probably a good start.


End file.
